Doec Traeh
by Itzika
Summary: As it turns out, one of the most important things Aelita forgot was that there is a limit to how many times a person can safely jump between the virtual world and the real one. What's worse, the Lyoko warriors passed that limit several months ago.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: My first Code Lyoko fic. Yayness! Okay, all my info on the third season comes from my friend, because I'm bad about getting home on time to watch it. Please forgive any minor canon-warping. This idea has sounded awesome to me for a long time, so I hope you like it. Please review, and I will try to update soon!

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It was just Odd's luck that he got paired with Sissy. Jeremy would later blame him for it, when he was fed up with the girl. But Mrs. Hertz paired them together, because he and Ulrich were talking, because Aelita had suggested a way to block Xana out of parts of the Web. But whoever's fault it was, Odd ended up paired with Sissy in science, _that_ day of all days.

Sissy didn't look any happier about the arrangement than Odd did. _She'd_ been hoping to be paired with Ulrich. Odd had been wishing he didn't have to change partners.

In any case, Odd and Sissy were paired with each other and told, like everyone else, to start the experiment. For the sole purpose of getting away from his unfortunate new partner, Odd volunteered to go get the materials.

Jeremy and Ulrich had gotten the same idea. Both of them were waiting for Odd by the cupboards.

"I don't _believe _this!" Jeremy was quietly exploding. "Of all the people to stick us with, she goes and sticks us with Sissy and her fanboys? She even took my laptop! How will we know if Xana activates a tower?"

Odd reached into the cupboard for a beaker, still watching Jeremy. Something was racing along his skin, but he discarded the sensation as meaningless; probably just a spider. So he didn't notice as his hand momentarily faded into a grid, turned purple, and faded back.

"All right, Sissy," Odd told his partner, returning to the lab station, "I got the stuff, now you measure the chemicals." He set down the equipment carelessly, but Sissy made no move to do anything. Odd frowned. "C'mon, Sissy, I'm not gonna do _everything_."

Sissy stood stock-still, eyes bugging out of her head as she stared at Odd. Slowly her mouth opened. Then she broke the silence, and all hell broke loose.

"YOUR _HANDS!_" she shrieked. "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR _HANDS?!_"

Odd looked at his hands, and yelped. He shoved his hands down under the table, praying no one had seen.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR _HANDS?!?_"

Well… besides her.

Odd looked again at his hands. Please, no… But yes. He hadn't been imagining it. his hands weren't hands anymore.

They were paws.

Cat paws.

Horribly familiar, purple cat paws.


	2. Chapter 2

Odd stuffed his hands under his lab apron. What in the world was happening to him? He looked around for Jeremy, or Ulrich, but they were working. Panicked, he reluctantly turned to Sissy just as the crash of a breaking beaker sounded.

Sissy looked more focused than Odd had ever seen her. She was biting her lip to keep from screaming as she squeezed a piece of glass. Crimson drops rolled down the glass, staining her hand the same deep red. She laid the glass on a stool and yanked Odd's right paw out of his apron. Odd yelled in shock.

"_Quiet!"_ Sissy hissed. _"I'm trying to help!"_

Odd had to laugh. _"You?!"_ he whispered back. "Help _me?! _That's funny."

Sissy scowled at him, smearing the hot liquid over his wrist. She laid her hand over his wrist and let her lab apron, which she had just untied from behind her neck, fall over his hand.

"_What HAPPENED here?!?!"_ the familiar voice of Mrs. Hertz shouted. Sissy looked up, her face drenched in sweat as she tried not to scream in pain.

"Odd cut his hand, Mrs. Hertz," she explained. "He's cut bad—there's a lot of blood—I think I should take him to the infirmary."

Mrs. Hertz looked at the blood and nodded immediately. "I should go with you—"

"NO!" Jeremy and Ulrich interrupted, and promptly started talking over each other. "I mean—You should stay, Mrs. Hertz—_We'll_ go—We volunteer—"

"I'll stay." The boys broke off as Mrs. Hertz answered. "So will you."

Sissy spoke again. "You know, Mrs. Hertz, as Odd's friends, I think they deserve to be the first to know how he's doing."

Mrs. Hertz looked again at the blood. Sissy's and Odd's hands were both squeezed tight around her wrist, cutting off circulation and slowing the flow; but Sissy's face was pale already. She'd obviously cut much deeper than she'd meant to, or she was in shock. "All right," Mrs. Hertz said. "Go, now."

Odd and Sissy left quickly, followed by Jeremy and Ulrich.

"How'd you cut your hand, Odd?" Ulrich asked.

Odd stopped. So did Sissy. "I didn't," Odd said. He pulled his paws away from Sissy. Ulrich's eyes widened; Jeremy leaned forward intently.

"How…?" he wondered aloud.

Odd was wondering the same thing as his paws dissolved into grids and shrank back into hands. _How…?_

Ulrich spoke up. "Then where did the blood come from?" he asked.

Which was when Sissy passed out.


End file.
